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The best Asana alternatives in 2026, and why Coavon comes out on top

The Coavon team · 16 October 2026 · 14 min read

The best Asana alternative for most teams is Coavon. Asana manages projects well, but a team also needs somewhere to keep its clients, write its documents, store its files and talk to each other, and Asana leaves all four to other software. Coavon includes them: Flow for projects, Scope for clients, Docs, Drive, Chat, Notes and Calendar, on one account and one price, from $8 a person a month. It also gives you task approvals with a separate approver and built-in time tracking on every plan, two things Asana keeps for its $24.99 Advanced plan.

Below we compare Coavon with five other popular Asana alternatives (monday.com, ClickUp, Wrike, Trello and Notion) on what they cost and what you get, and we are upfront about what Coavon does not do yet.

Every price and plan detail for other companies on this page was read from their own pricing pages on October 16, 2026. Prices are per person a month, billed annually, in US dollars, unless we say otherwise. They change often, so check before you buy.

Why teams look for an Asana alternative

Asana is a capable project tool. The reasons people move on are usually about what it costs to get the whole job done:

• Key features sit on the expensive plan. On Asana's own pricing page, approvals, built-in time tracking, goals, portfolios and resource management are on Advanced, at $24.99 a person a month ($30.49 month to month). Starter is $10.99.
• The work around the project lives somewhere else. Asana's plans include no CRM, no document editor and no team chat app, so most teams pay for and connect three or four other tools.
• AI is metered. Asana's pricing page lists AI requests at $0.50 each, prepaid, or a $5.99 a person on-demand plan at $0.60 a request.
• The free plan is for two. Asana Personal is free for up to two people.

Asana alternatives at a glance

1. Coavon: the best Asana alternative

Coavon is a suite of connected apps for running a team's work, under one sign-in. Flow is the project app that replaces Asana; around it sit Scope (a CRM), Docs, Drive, Chat, Notes and Calendar. Every plan includes every app, the Free plan included. The rest of this section covers what that means in practice.

One suite instead of five subscriptions

With Asana, a typical team also pays for a CRM, a chat app, a file store and a document editor, and then spends time copying information between them. In Coavon these are the same account: a won deal in Scope can start its project in Flow from your own template, a client's record links to its projects, tasks and files, and a document in Docs or a file in Drive is one click from the task it belongs to. One bill, one list of people, one place to search.

Approvals with a separate approver, on every plan

Any Flow task can need approval. The person doing the work and the person signing it off are different people: you pick an approver, and the task cannot be marked done until it is approved or rejected. The approver can approve, request changes (which sends the task back to In Progress) or reject, and the right people are told at each step. A workspace can require approval on every task and set a default approver, and automations can create tasks that need approval or start when one is answered. The approver can be a guest, so a client can sign off on work themselves. In Asana, approvals are on Advanced at $24.99 a person; in Coavon they are on every plan.

Free guests for clients and freelancers

Invite people from outside your team into a single Flow project. Guests are free and take no seat: unlimited on every paid plan, and two on Free. A guest sees only the projects they are invited to, can add and update tasks and comment, and cannot see the rest of your workspace.

Followers, bulk editing and the everyday details

• Task followers. The creator, assignee, approver and anyone who comments or is mentioned follow a task automatically, and anyone who can see it can follow it or add a colleague. Followers hear about new comments, status changes and completion, with each person choosing what reaches them.
• Bulk editing. Tick tasks in List view and change their status, assignee, priority or due date, move them to another project, mark them done or delete them in one go.
• Custom statuses. Add your own stages, such as Client Review, as board columns and filters (on Pro, $16 a person).
• Recurring tasks. Repeat a task every few days, weeks or months, on chosen weekdays or on a day such as the second Tuesday, with a due time.
• Time tracking on every plan. Start a timer or enter time on the task itself. Asana's built-in time tracking is on Advanced.
• Forms. Share a public form link and every response becomes a task, with each question mapped to a field. One form and 20 responses a month on Free and Starter, unlimited from Pro. Scope has its own forms that create or update client records.
• Automations. Rules such as "when a task moves to Review, assign it to the editor" run in Flow and Scope, with no limit on how often they run.

Works with Claude and other AI tools

The Coavon connector lets Claude and other AI assistants read and update your work across the apps: create and update tasks, look up a client, read a note or a document, check your calendar. It is listed in Claude's connector directory and included from Starter. Coavon does not charge per AI request.

Price

Coavon Starter is $8 a person a month billed annually ($10 month to month), against $10.99 for Asana Starter, and it includes every app. Pro is $16 and Business is $24. Every new workspace gets a free trial, and Coavon stays free for one person afterwards. See pricing for the full plans and a calculator of what you pay for separate tools today.

What Coavon does not do yet

We would rather you hear it from us. Coavon runs in a web browser and has no phone apps yet. It does not connect to Slack or Microsoft Teams (it has its own Chat instead), has no single sign-on through an identity provider, and cannot turn an email into a task. Flow has no milestones, project status updates, goals, portfolios or workload view, and a task belongs to one project at a time. The Gantt chart and task dependencies are on Pro. If any of these is essential to your team today, factor it in. For everything else, Coavon gives you more of the job for less.

2. monday.com

monday.com is a work management platform built around boards you set up yourself, with separate products for CRM, service and software teams.

• Boards on every plan, with a calendar view, timeline and Gantt chart from Standard.
• Automations and integrations from Standard, with 250 automation actions a month (25,000 on Pro).
• Time tracking from Pro.
• monday workdocs for writing alongside your boards.
• Guest access from Standard, and free viewers on paid plans.
• iPhone and Android apps.
• Price: free for up to 2 seats; Basic $9, Standard $12 and Pro $19 a seat a month billed annually, with a 3-seat minimum. monday CRM is a separate product.

Compare in detail: Coavon vs monday.com.

3. ClickUp

ClickUp is an all-in-one work app that puts tasks, docs, chat and many optional features in one place.

• List, board and calendar views, with Gantt charts from Unlimited.
• ClickUp Docs and ClickUp Chat.
• Native time tracking, goals and portfolios from Unlimited.
• Forms: one on Free Forever, unlimited from Unlimited.
• Automations with a monthly limit by plan (5,000 a month on Business).
• Mind mapping and private whiteboards on Business.
• Price: Free Forever with 60 MB of storage; Unlimited $7 and Business $12 a person a month billed yearly ($10 and $19 month to month). AI is sold separately, from $9 a person a month.

Compare in detail: Coavon vs ClickUp.

4. Wrike

Wrike is a project management tool built for larger teams and detailed planning.

• Board and table views on Free, with interactive Gantt charts and shareable dashboards from Team.
• Templates and standard integrations on Business.
• Resource and capacity planning and budgeting on Pinnacle.
• Web, desktop and phone apps.
• Price: Free; Team $10 a person a month for 2 to 15 people; Business $25 a person for 5 to 200 people, billed annually. Pinnacle and Apex are priced on request.

Compare in detail: Coavon vs Wrike.

5. Trello

Trello is a simple board tool: boards, lists and cards.

• Boards with built-in automation on every plan.
• Power-Ups to connect more than 200 apps, including Slack and Google Drive.
• Unlimited boards, custom fields and card mirroring from Standard.
• Calendar, timeline, table and dashboard views on Premium.
• Phone and desktop apps.
• Price: free for up to 10 collaborators and 10 boards per Workspace; Standard $5 and Premium $10 a person a month billed annually ($6 and $12.50 month to month).

6. Notion

Notion is a workspace of pages and databases, often used for wikis, notes and docs.

• Databases with subtasks, dependencies and custom properties on every plan.
• Forms and published sites, basic on Free and customizable from Plus.
• Notion Calendar included.
• Database automations from Plus.
• Notion Agent and AI meeting notes on Business.
• Price: Free (10 guests); Plus $10 and Business $20 a member a month billed yearly ($12 and $24 month to month).

Asana vs Coavon, feature by feature

For the full table, see Coavon vs Asana.

How to choose an Asana alternative

1. List what your team uses besides Asana. If it includes a CRM, a chat app, a file store or a document editor, an all-in-one suite such as Coavon will cost less and save the copying between tools.
2. Price the plan that has the features you need, not the cheapest plan. Approvals, time tracking, a timeline or automations are often on a higher plan than the headline price.
3. Check per-person minimums and team-size bands. Some plans start at 3 seats or stop at 15 people.
4. Count the people outside your team. Clients and freelancers cost nothing as guests on Coavon's paid plans and from Asana Starter.
5. Try it with a real project. Move one live project over for a week before deciding.

How to move from Asana to Coavon

1. Export a project from Asana to a CSV file.
2. In Flow, open Settings and import the file. Match its columns to Flow's fields and check the preview before anything is added.
3. Import your client list into Scope from a CSV file, and upload your files to Drive.
4. Invite your team, and add clients or freelancers as guests on the projects they work on.

Comments, automations and integrations do not come across in the file, so set those up again in Flow.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best alternative to Asana?

For most teams, Coavon. It replaces Asana with Flow and includes a CRM, documents, file storage, team chat, notes and a calendar on the same account, from $8 a person a month billed annually. Approvals and time tracking, which Asana keeps for its $24.99 Advanced plan, are on every Coavon plan.

Is there a cheaper alternative to Asana?

Yes. On October 16, 2026, Asana Starter was $10.99 a person a month billed annually. Coavon Starter is $8, ClickUp Unlimited is $7, Trello Standard is $5, and monday.com Basic is $9 a seat with a 3-seat minimum. Coavon is the only one of these that also includes a CRM, a document editor, file storage and team chat.

Does Coavon have approvals like Asana?

Yes, on every plan. You choose an approver who is separate from the person doing the work, and the task cannot be marked done until it is approved or rejected. The approver can also request changes, and the approver can be a guest, such as a client.

Is there a free Asana alternative?

Coavon is free for one person, with every app. Asana Personal is free for up to two people, Trello Free for up to 10 collaborators, and ClickUp and Notion also have free plans with limits.

What does Asana do that Coavon does not?

Asana has phone apps, a large library of integrations (more than 100 on its free plan), project status updates, and goals, portfolios and resource management on Advanced. Coavon has none of these yet. Coavon instead includes the CRM, documents, file storage and team chat that Asana leaves to other software.

Can I import my Asana projects into Coavon?

Yes. Export a project from Asana to a CSV file and import it into Flow, matching its columns to Flow’s fields. Comments, automations and integrations do not carry over and are set up again.

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